


Too Busy Saving Everybody Else (To Save Yourself)

by astropocalypse



Series: White Collar/Batman Shenanigans [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: A bit too late but uhhhhh, Angst, Bruce Wayne's C+ Parenting, Canonical Character Death, Dick Grayson is Neal Caffrey, Gen, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Neal Caffrey is Dick Grayson, Oops I killed Jason again, White Collar/Batman Crossover, Why am I incapable of writing something that isn't angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 19:28:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29265795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astropocalypse/pseuds/astropocalypse
Summary: It's a quiet day at the White Collar office, until one Dick Grayson gets some bad news from a certain man who likes to dress up as a bat.(Or: Jason dies while Dick is undercover as Neal Caffrey. Bruce has to be the one to break the news to him.)
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey
Series: White Collar/Batman Shenanigans [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2150793
Comments: 12
Kudos: 170





	Too Busy Saving Everybody Else (To Save Yourself)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Small Things (White Collar/Batman Snippets)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28491024) by [CheetahLeopard2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheetahLeopard2/pseuds/CheetahLeopard2). 



> I have a confession to make. I LOVE White Collar/Batman crossovers. They're some of my favorite fics to read. And I thought, hey, if there isn't enough content in this niche, why not make it myself? But, I am apparently incapable of writing anything other than angst, so this is what came out.
> 
> This was beta'd by the lovely [BeautifulSilence21](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulSilence21/pseuds/BeautifulSilence21) on the Capes & Coffee discord, make sure to check them out!
> 
> (The title is a song lyric from It's Called: Freefall by Rainbow Kitten Surprise)

Neal had gotten used to quiet days at the office. Back home, quiet days meant trouble- it meant that Gotham’s criminal underbelly were laying low, planning their next heist or weapons deal or… whatever the Riddler was doing. But things were different here, much more relaxed- the only thing quiet days meant were boring mortgage fraud cases and the occasional interesting theft. It was one such quiet day, and one equally boring mortgage fraud case, that found him almost drooling into his fedora (and hoping Diana wasn’t around to cuff him upside the head again for sleeping on the job). That is, until he was quickly woken up by the distinct shrill beep of the communicator he kept on himself strictly for bat-related emergencies. Bat-mergerncies? Heh.

He saw Peter looking towards him with an odd look, but didn’t spare the time to try and conjure up an explanation for his out of character behavior. He stalked over (no, Neal Caffrey doesn’t stalk, he strides) to a secluded hallway and opened the communicator, for once nervous enough to stay unaware of the suspicious FBI agent following closely behind.

“What’s up, B? This better be good, you know I’m at work-“

He immediately stopped talking, hearing an almost unnoticeable (to anyone but a bat, of course) inhale in the background. Something was seriously wrong.

He changed course. “Bruce? Talk to me, please. What happened?”

“Dick… Jay… Jason is dead.”

(If anyone was watching (and someone was, monumentally confused), they would have seen the mask of Neal Caffrey, cultivated like a precious flower, shatter to pieces in seconds and reveal the true face of the man living underneath. The agony striking across Neal’s face was like none Peter had ever seen on him, not even after Kate’s death. Something important had happened, and Peter resolved to get to the bottom of it, both as Neal’s handler and as his friend.)

Dick almost dropped his communicator in shock. “W-what?” He whispered, trying to focus on the situation and not think of _falling crack dead falling can’t catch them in time dead dead DEAD_.

There was a long pause. “…Joker. A week ago, Jason… he ran away to Ethiopia to find his birth mother. She sold him out to the Joker. He tortured Jason with what seems to be a crowbar and left him in a warehouse rigged to blow up. I didn’t get there in time.” To anyone else, Bruce’s tone would have shown complete detachment from the situation, yet Dick could hear the tremor in his voice clear as day.

Dick sounded murderous. “A week ago. He went missing a week ago. And you didn’t think to tell me?”

There was no answer from the other side.

He continued, “And the Joker?”

“Locked up in Arkham.”

His voice dropped almost impossibly lower, dangerous. “And why isn’t the bastard dead?”

“You know why we can’t kill-“

Dick, finally raising his voice, started to pace around the corridor. “Fuck your stupid rule! How can you not do something about it? Jason. Is. Dead! My brother is dead! By his hand!”

“Damnit, Dick! You know I would if I could! But Jason wouldn’t want that for us or for Gotham. And I have to think about the long term, not just how much I’d like to bash that fucker’s skull into the pavement.” Bruce, showing his true feeling in a very uncharacteristic moment, visibly softened his tone. “Just… I know you’re mad at me, but Dick… Will you please come home? If not for me then for Alfred.”

Dick’s posture slumped, and defeat was evident in his face. He looked ten years older in that moment, the weight of the world on his shoulders. “…yeah. Of course. Give me an hour to burn Caffrey and I’ll be on my way.”

He walked away from that hallway as Dick Grayson, leaving behind a shell shocked man who could not bear to stop him. An hour on the dot later, all records the government had on Neal Caffrey were erased as if the man had never existed in the first place.

Dick Grayson would return to the comforting embrace of his grandfather, and attempt to bridge the gap with the father he had scorned. Slowly but surely, they would learn to communicate and share their grief. And one night, the glint of a camera lens would catch the light and reveal a young boy who had watched their journey all along.

Peter Burke would mourn and rage at the friend that he had lost, but continue living. He would receive comfort from his wife, close cases with his team, and meet up with June for a cup of coffee once a month. Eventually, the memory of Neal would begin to blur, and all that would be left is the feeling of exasperated fondness. That is, until eight years later, a certain dark haired, blue eyed man would show up at his door with a bottle of wine and an apologetic grin.

**Author's Note:**

> So, because fuck canon timelines, the background for this is:  
> After Dick and Bruce fight and he stops being Robin, he fucks off to NYC to do his own thing. He works with the Titans, becomes Nightwing, etc., etc.. He knows Jason, and is a bit of a better brother to him than in canon, but still not great. He creates his Neal Caffrey alias sometime after that to infiltrate Adler, and we all know how that goes down. He chooses to let himself get caught in order to get out of the alias and go to "prison", I'm choosing to believe that he genuinely loved Kate and that's why he did the whole shebang with her, but there can be a couple of different interpretations. He also hasn't spoken to Bruce except for cape-related emergencies, Titans stuff and Justice League stuff, which is why Bruce calling him is a big deal.
> 
> That's all from me, folks! I'd love to hear your feedback, good and bad but please don't be unnecessarily mean. If you would like to read anything else like this, tell me too.
> 
> -Astro <3


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